Solar Cooker Popularizing For Preparing Healthy Food

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News -26th Augst,2016) : The trend of utilizing solar cookers in rural areas of the country for preparing healthy food items was increasing day by day. The number of solar cookers in use in Pakistan is more than 5000, but it is still far less than that being used in China (60,000) and India (about 14,500) due to lack of awareness among public about its benefits. The popularizing of solar cookers could help in saving the precious forest resources as fuel wood, said an official of Pakistan Council of Renewable Energy Technologies (PCRET) while talking to this scribe. He said there was need for an awareness campaign to inform the public about the benefits of use of solar cookers for preparing food items. He informed that solar cookers come in two types: box types that are more suitable for baking the food, and concentrated (parabolic) type that works at high temperatures. Foods prepared in solar ovens keep their natural flavor and taste and retain their vitamin content, he said.

The official said less oil is required for cooking in the solar oven, therefore, solar oven cooked food is good for also weight conscious people.

All Pakistani dishes including prathas and chapatti can be prepared on concentrated type cooker in the same time interval as taken by a conventional single stove gas cooker, he added.

He said the method of cooking is also similar to that of conventional cooker. The cooker, he said, emits no harmful smoke to harm eyes and lungs of the cook. He said the cooking can be done on this cooker from 9.00 am to 3.00 p.m.

on all sunny days of the year. He said a number of public sector organizations have worked in the past and are still working on the development of low cost and efficient designs of both box and concentrator type solar cookers. He said non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are also active in this field and have supplied a number of such cookers to rural areas. The PCRET, he said, was routinely organizing training workshops on the use and maintenance of such devices.